


The Hunt

by SuperWhoAvengeTrekLock



Series: Supernatural As Told by Me: If Cas Was Always There [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Blades, Dean had insecurities, Guns, M/M, Misunderstandings, Sam being a friend, So does Cas, Violence, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9901013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperWhoAvengeTrekLock/pseuds/SuperWhoAvengeTrekLock
Summary: Stars off with Sam teaching Cas how to fight because he reveals that he doesn't even know how to throw a punch. Dean hears and thinks it's a lot more than what's going on. Meanwhile, it's Cas' first hunt and he surprises the Winchester's as well as himself.This whole thing is just supposed to center around Cas' first hunt and the first look we get into his smarts and his capabilities. This definitely cannot be read as a stand alone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, another highly worded fic. Let's do this.

“Ha!” could be heard from behind the motel room door before a loud thump followed. 

“Come on, Cas. Like I showed you. You can do better than that,” Sam said as he egged the other on. 

Castiel sighed loudly. “Well when you keep  _ moving _ it makes it hard for me to do what you want,” he answered in response. “I don’t know if I can do this, Sam…”

“You have to. You have to learn. For your sake, for mine, and especially for Dean’s. He cares a lot about you. He knew going into this that you didn’t have much experience but what’s he gonna think when he finds out you can’t do  _ this _ at least semi-correctly?”

“Hey,” Castiel defended. “I rocked you just a couple of rounds ago so don’t go acting like I don’t got it just because I can’t do all that fancy shit with my body. And Dean hasn’t come to me complaining so I don’t know why you are.”

A smirk could be heard in Sam’s voice. “Because Dean doesn’t want to upset you, probably, so he hasn’t brought it up. It’s better if you learn it from me and take it to him. And I told you; beginners luck. And clearly it was because you haven’t given me anything sense.”

“Oh I’ll give you something.”

_ What. The. Fuck. _

Those were the only three words going on in Dean’s mind at first. What the fuck. What the fuck? What the fuck! The phrase seemed to evolve, though, only running through his thoughts deeper, making his blood pressure sky rocket, he was sure. What the fuck were his brother and his boyfriend doing beyond the door of the motel room? 

**_A Couple Hours Earlier_ **

Dean had been sitting there, Castiel tucked under his arm as they reviewed the case at hand. Sam and Dean were in the middle of what they liked to call his ‘training’. They were teaching him how to spot the monster, so to speak. They would explain to Cas how they did it; how they went looking for a case and after seeing the scene they would determine what it was and what it wasn’t. It was really quite simple. Until you got to the part where they had no clue what it was and then came the part Dean dreaded the most: research. 

“I like the research part,” Castiel smiled up at him as he grabbed a lore book from one of his own duffle bags. “I think it’s fun reading about the different creatures and learning something new about them every time or learning a new theory or a new way to kill them.” 

Dean scoffed. “You would. Nerd,” he teased as he kissed him softly, though he found it endearing. On a regular, he made fun of Sam for finding interest in the world they lived in, on getting excited over something. But when Castiel did it… it was just down right cute. 

“Ass,” he muttered, though he went back to laying his head on the Dean’s shoulder. 

Sam chuckled and shook his head at how they acted with each other, how they seemed to fall into step so easily. But it wasn’t just them, either. He and Cas seemed to share a bond as well. He’d never gotten along with someone the way he did Cas. And even when they didn’t, when they were debating on something, they didn’t seem to hold it against one another. It was healthy debate. It was strange. It was like Castiel had been with them all along. But he liked the dynamic. 

After a while of sitting in companionable silence, Castiel looked up. “No hex bags, no EMF?” he asked the two. 

Sam sighed and shook his head. “No hex bags that we could see,” he offered. “And we searched the place twice. Once when with the cops there and then again when they left. The EMF did go nuts but… powerlines,” he said.

“What about a coin?” he asked.

“A coin?” Dean frowned. 

“Yeah. It says right here in the book that some witches use old coins that they cast upon. Some say it’s… easier to use and more conspicuous than planting a hex bag on someone’s person. Or at least that’s what the book says witches say. I don’t think they were interviewing them, though...”

Dean blinked. “Cas… where did you even get that book?” he inquired, not recognizing it as one of their own.

Castiel smiled. “Oh, when you brought me to that hunter shop. You two were searching for something and I found a couple books that I thought were interesting and would round out the collection,” he shrugged. “So I bought them.”

“And where did you get the money?” Sam asked. 

Castiel lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe you two forgot that before I came on the road with you two I went to work every day, had a real bank account, with a real debit card,” he said. “I drained my bank account the night we left.”

“Well look at that, I got me a  _ rich _ boyfriend,” Dean teased, laughing when Castiel whacked him. 

“Right here it says that some witches will use coins. Older witches, of course. So if you’re dealing with a witch, which is what it sounds like, then you might wanna go back and search for the coin.”

Sam and Dean looked at each other and shrugged. “Worth a shot,” Sam said. 

Dean nodded and took his legs down from where they’d been propped up on part of the table. “I’ll go take a look. I might be a little while. If I get a lead then I’m gonna follow it up.”

“You want some backup?” Sam queried.

“Nah. Should be fine. I’ll call if I need anything,” he nodded before he leaned down and gave Castiel a kiss. “I’ll see you in a little while, angel,” he smiled. “Unless…” he paused, getting an idea. “You wanna come with me?” he asked. It wasn’t much of a job which was why he didn’t need Sam but it was perfect to start off with bringing Castiel in.

Castiel had smiled when Dean kissed him but when Dean actually asked if he wanted to come with, wanted to come out into ‘the field’ with him… his heart raced a little. What if this wasn’t a simple check? What if they got into real confrontation? You would have thought that might have been enough for Castiel to say yes, so that Dean had someone to back him up even though he was saying he didn’t need it. But would Castiel be a help or a liability? Would Dean hand him a gun? Would he expect him to be able to defend himself? Be any sort of help if they got attacked? Dean would probably work better on his own. 

“I think I’m just going to stay here for now and order some food that’ll be here when you get back,” he smiled. “That okay?” he asked. 

Dean smiled. “Of course, angel. You do whatever you want. I’ll be back in a bit,” he said before he kissed him once more. 

“Bye baby,” Castiel called softly as he watched him go. When he turned back around to see Sam looking at him, he shrunk back in his chair. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Sam shook his head. “No reason. I just… the night we met you were so gungho to learn all about what we do, to fight and get out there… I guess I just thought you would jump at the chance when Dean finally offered to bring you with.”

Castiel bit his lip as he looked down at the book again. He could ignore Sam. He could just completely side swipe the conversation and move on, forget it all. But Sam already knew him well enough to know when something was going on. 

He debated inwardly. He could tell him what was happening in his head… or he could lie. But lying was sort of what got him into this, wasn’t it?

He sighed. “I can’t fight,” he said all at once. 

Sam looked at him in confusion. “I’m sorry, what–”

“I can’t fight, Sam,” he said, louder and slower for the hunter. 

At that, Sam’s eyes widened. “What do you mean you can’t fight?” he inquired as if suddenly worried that Castiel was going to die right then and there simply because he was telling him that he didn’t know how to fight. “You’re telling me like… you don’t know how to–”

“I  _ barely _ know how to throw a punch…” he blushed. 

Sam made a wheezing noise. “Cas… you’ve gotta be kidding me– Dean is under the impression that you know… a-at least  _ something _ , not to mention he said you knew guns.”

“Yeah, I know how to  _ spot _ a gun. I know how to put the safety on and take the safety off because that was all I needed to know!” he sighed. “As for the fighting… I may have led Dean to believe that I was a lot… scrappier than I truly am. I’ve thrown one punch in my entire life and the guy laughed at me,” he murmured, looking down as his fingers played with the edges of the book that was in his lap. 

“You grew up in a house of kids. You said you have brothers–”

“Yes, who beat the piss out of each other. But I was nearly the baby. I was the second to youngest. Not only did my parents baby me but so did my siblings. My sisters, half the time, wouldn’t let the boys near me if they were being rowdy. And my brother Gabriel protected me from everything, not to mention my little brother and I didn’t have that. So no, I don’t know how to fight,” he groaned as he put his head down on the table with a slight bang. “And now Dean is going to start asking me to come with him and I don’t know how to protect him and I’m probably just going to get him hurt– or worse,” he babbled, his voice coming out muffled from the position he was in. 

Sam breathed and ran a hand over his face. He wanted to be mad at his new friend. He wanted to be mad that the man in front of him had lied to Dean and now was facing the consequences. But really, Dean would have taken Cas with him whether he’d been proficient in fighting or not so if Castiel had just told him, they could have spent at least some time on teaching the man how to fight instead of focusing on the supernatural part of the job. 

Sam knew that Castiel needed to know and if he was going to keep it from Dean, they were going to need to do this quick. “Alright. Get up,” he said. 

“What, why?” Castiel asked as he looked up, seeing Sam beginning to move the chairs from the table to the far end of the room. “What are you doing?”

“I’m clearing a spot. If you need to learn; I’m going to teach you the basics on how to fight. And we’re not going to tell my brother so that you don’t get into trouble for misleading him and  _ I _ don’t get in trouble because he thinks I’m abusing his boyfriend.”

Castiel perked up when the taller man said he would teach him. He helped Sam move the chairs and the table, even angling the couch so that they had more room, eventually giving them a wide enough space that neither of them would get hurt in. 

“Alright. I have no idea when Dean is coming back so we have to do this quick,” Sam said, only beginning when Castiel nodded as well. 

 

**_Present_ **

Castiel groaned as he ended up on his back once more, the sweat drenching him from head to toe. He’d taken off his shirt at one point but that was only to keep himself from overheating in unusually hot room. 

He didn’t know how long they’d been at it but he was sure of one thing; he was going to be sore tomorrow. Not to mention he didn’t think he was getting any better at this. But that didn’t stop him from getting up and putting his arms up once more like Sam had showed him and trying again. This time, though, when Sam moved to strike, he blocked it out of pure instinct and Sam smiled. 

“Ha! You did it, Cas,” he panted. “That was awesome,” he congratulated, proud of his friend. Despite what Castiel kept saying, what he kept complaining about, he was an extremely fast learner. It had taken him weeks to be able to block Dean; this having been the way he taught him. It had taken him even longer to land a punch. But Castiel had done both in an hour long training session. Sure, Sam won most but it was only because he had been doing it longer. Castiel was something to rival. He was even beginning to think the new hunter a challenge. 

Castiel smiled wide at the praise. “Yeah it was,” he said. “Again. I wanna do it again,” he nodded enthusiastically. 

Sam chuckled. “Are you sure? We’ve done a lot in a short amount of time. Your body is gonna be screaming at you. You sure you don’t want take a break? We’ve sorta been at it since Dean left.”

Castiel shook his head. “No. No, I wanna do it again, before Dean gets back,” he said. “I wanna be able to show him what I know,” he smiled. 

Sam nodded. “Okay,” he said as he put his hands up once again. “Alright. Let’s switch it up. You try being more dominant this time, more like the aggressor,” he gestured toward him. 

Castiel gave a quick nod before he was going after Sam, a hit getting blocked but trying to use both hands like Sam had taught him, not just his dominant.

Suddenly the door burst open, Dean coming in like a bat out of hell. He was too lost in his own mind as his head swirled; having been standing outside the door listening to the two for so long that he’d  _ bounded _ to the wrong conclusion. “I can’t fucking believe you two would do something like this!” he yelled, surprising them both but Sam slightly more so as Castiel got the drop on him and landed a blow to his gut that he hadn’t expected to make. 

As Sam doubled over in pain, the air knocked out of him completely and he groaned. His knees hit the ground before he was just going down and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it. 

Castiel’s eyes widened and he gasped, his hands flying to his mouth in surprise. He dropped to the floor immediately as well beside the other. “Oh my god– Sam, are you alright? I’m so sorry!” he said remorsefully. 

Sam shook his head, holding a thumbs up. “You did good,” he wheezed. “Always… catch your opponent… off guard,” he said. 

Castiel looked up at Dean who seemed to be standing there confused. “Dean, what the hell?! Since when do you come into a room like that?”

Dean looked down at the two, swallowing as he felt rooted into place. He took in the whole scene; the moved around furniture, the two in the middle of the room… the beds over in the corner looking as untouched as when he left. All at once it clicked in his mind that Sam hadn’t been screwing his boyfriend, no… he’d been  _ sparring _ with his boyfriend. 

Oh no...

Okay, so he was an idiot for thinking what he’d thought. How could he think that Cas and Sam would ever do something like that? No, he was  _ truly _ an idiot. He’d done some pretty stupid things, said some pretty stupid stuff, and had thoughts even stupider. But this… oh this took the cake. And then, of course, there was the fact that they… they were going to kill him for this when he told them, when they figured out what Dean had thought of them. 

“I-I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I… I got back and I could hear noises and grunting on the other side of the door… the way you were talking… I thought you were–”

“What? What the hell did you think was going on, Dean?” Castiel asked, clearly oblivious for a moment. He looked at Dean with utter confusion until he ran through the what Dean might have heard, when he would have heard them to think something was going on besides sparring. The wheels turned before there was an almost audible ding as the light flipped behind his eyes. “Dean Winchester–”

A knock cut him off as a pizza delivery man stood in the doorway with his bag. “Uh… delivery for Cas…” he said, not caring that this was clearly a bad time. 

Dean gave his boyfriend a guilty look. “I’ll pay?” he asked, offering a weak smile but when Castiel gave him the dirtiest of looks, he quickly turned so that he couldn’t look at him anymore. 

He payed the pizza delivery man, knowing that he fucked up bad and that he was going to get it. What he hadn’t expected was for Castiel to be right there after closing the door and turning around. 

“Dean Winchester I should kill you!” Castiel yelled, beating him upon every word. 

“Ow, ow,  _ ow _ – Cas, stop, okay? I’m sorry. At least let me put the damn pizza down,” he said as he put it down on one of the chairs that were nearest. “Angel–” he’d tried to start but Castiel cut him off.

“Oh don’t you  _ angel _ me,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You stood outside the door, the door to the motel room the three of us  _ share _ by the way, and heard grunting and thumping and you  _ actually _ thought I was having  _ sex _ with your brother?”

Dean’s guilty face came back. “I didn’t know!” he said. “I heard grunting and the way you were both talking… going another round… having gone a few rounds– I jumped to conclusions and I’m sorry.”

Sam sighed as he finally had the energy to sit up. He wanted to go into a big long speech about how he could ever think that he would do that to his brother. And also how he could ever think Cas would do that to him. But to be honest, he was still a little disoriented and panted so what he settled on was a lot less eloquent. “You’re… an ass,” he pointed to his brother. 

Dean’s jaw clenched as he looked past Castiel to look at his brother. “Yes, thank you, Sam. Because I hadn’t gotten that already.”

Sam gave Dean a thumbs up as he laid back down. “Just wanted to make sure you knew.”

Dean rolled his eyes and looked to Cas. “I’m sorry, angel. It’s not that I don’t trust you… it’s not even that I don’t trust Sam… I guess… I don’t know… I got jealous,” he said as he hung his head. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight. If I was I would have realized that you and Sam… you would have never done that to me.”

Castiel looked up into green eyes. He could tell that Dean was truly sorry but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt slightly for the other to even remotely believe that he was sleeping with his brother. But he supposed he could handle it in one of two ways. He could continue to yell at the hunter, ice him out and give him the cold shoulder for a little while. Or…

Castiel wrapped his arms around Dean’s neck and brought him down for a deep kiss, a kiss he’d only ever shared with Dean. 

Dean was genuinely surprised when Castiel pulled him in for a kiss. He’d expected to be beaten again. But this… mm, this was better. He wrapped his arms around his waist and held him there tightly to his body, trying to tell him he was sorry without saying it again. 

Castiel broke the kiss for air a few moments later, connecting their foreheads. “I left my old life to be with you, Dean. After only one night and an instant connection, I wanted to be with  _ you _ . So do you really think I would jeopardize all that by doing something as low as sleeping with your brother? Who’s not even my type, by the way,” he muttered. 

“I heard that!” Sam said from his spot on the floor. 

“Yeah, shut up,” Dean chuckled before he looked deeply into blue eyes. “I was an ass. I know. I should have known better. I should have known there was a much better explanation to what I was hearing. I’m sorry. I won’t be so stupid in the future. I promise,” he whispered as he swooped down to kiss Castiel softly. 

Castiel hummed into the kiss. “Apology accepted,” he said. “Now go help your brother up. It’s your fault I punched him.”

Dean smiled and pecked his lips once more before he moved closer to Sam and put his arm out. “Sorry, little brother.”

Sam nodded. “It’s good. It’s fine. But maybe not make him angry because– wow… you’ve got a hook on you, Cas.”

Castiel’s face turned red from the praise but he smiled. “Really?”

Sam chuckled. “Hard enough that you put me on the ground for a few. You were pulling your punches before. Never pull your punches,” he advised. 

Castiel nodded, happy that he was able to do something right. All afternoon he’d felt like he’d not been doing anything right. It was nice to hear that he was. 

Dean smiled at his brother telling his boyfriend that he had a good punch before he frowned in thought, beginning to stitch together everything he’d heard but in this new context. They’d been talking about fighting? “Wait…” he said, both of them stopping to look at him. “What brought on the sparring? There a reason you decided it was a good idea to beat on my boyfriend?” he rounded on Sam. 

Sam sighed and looked to Cas. “I told you,” he said. 

“Told you what?” Dean asked as his eyes trailed to Castiel once more, seeing the guilty look he’d been wearing since he stepped in had left him and gone to Castiel. “Cas…?”

Castiel let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d sucked in when the hunter started asking questions. “Dean…” he started as he approached him slowly. “When we left Illinois, got on the road, you asked me if I had any experience with fighting and I told you yes. I made you believe that I was something I wasn’t. But the truth was that when you asked me to come today… just the thought of having to fight… it scared me back into my hole…” he said. “I knew I would have to tell you. I knew you would have to teach me… but I also figured that you wouldn’t want me out with you for some time–”

“I even bet money on it,” Sam said. 

“Not helping,” Castiel murmured before looking back to Dean. “Sam caught it. When you left, he could tell that I wasn’t being myself because I wanted to go with you. I did. And to be honest, even I thought that the first time you asked me I would have jumped at the chance. But then I thought about getting into an actual fight… you getting hurt because you would have put me to a higher standard than I could handle. And I panicked. So Sam offered to teach me… because I didn’t want you to know that I didn’t know how. I didn’t know how to fight.”

Dean looked at Sam before his eyes tracked back to Castiel. He slowly let it all fall together in his mind. Castiel had lied to him. Castiel had made him believe that he could at least  _ somewhat _ handle himself. 

He wanted to be mad. He wanted to be angry at the other for letting Dean put him in such situations already when the man in front of him didn’t even know how to properly defend himself. But just as Castiel had taken the high road with his insecurity, he would do the same. 

“Cas… why didn’t you just tell me? You realize that I would have found out eventually, don’t you?” he questioned his lover gently.

Castiel sighed. “Yeah, I know. I didn’t exactly think it through. I suppose that I was afraid that if you found out I couldn’t fight, couldn’t defend myself that… maybe you wouldn’t want anything to do with me. Maybe you wouldn’t take me with you and you’d just leave me behind.”

“Angel, that’s not what would have happened. I just would have started teaching you how to fight,” he said. “That’s all. I would have put more focus on getting you handy with a weapon and how to defend yourself than worrying about cases someone else can handle. I don’t care that you can’t, but I definitely care that you start learning.”

Castiel softened and he wrapped his arms around Dean. “You’re not the only one with insecurities. I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered. 

Dean smiled at the feeling. “Hey, it’s alright,” he assured, though as he looked over his shoulder at Sam, he made gestures telling his brother that if he hurt him, he was so going to kill him. “You better not have a scratch on you,” he said as he made eye contact with his brother, kissing Castiel’s cheek.

“Hey, he’s the one that punched me in the gut!” Sam defended. “What about my honor?” he asked. “What are you gonna say to him?”

Dean cupped Castiel’s cheeks and looked him seriously in the eye. “Good shot, angel,” he grinned before delivering a kiss to his lips. 

Castiel giggled as Sam made a sound of protest behind them. 

“Oh shut up, you’re the one who let a newbie get a shot in hard enough to put you on your knees, I trained you better than that.”

“He put all his force behind it! Not to mention I wasn’t expecting you to kick the door down!”

“All I’m hearing is excuses,” he teased his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes at Dean’s words and went to get something to eat. “Jesus Christ, you do something nice and you catch backlash for it,” he mumbled to himself.

Castiel chuckled. “Alright, boys,” he said, though he looked at Dean. “Be nice to Sam,” he whispered. “He was helping me when he should have just told you the truth and let me get in trouble.” He looked up at Dean. “Thank you… for understanding,” he spoke. 

Dean smiled. “That’s my job, ain’t it? While being a semi-functioning boyfriend?”

Castiel nodded as he laughed. “Yes, of course,” he said as he reached for the shirt he’d discarded a while ago. 

 

After they’d eaten and come to an understanding that Dean would continue teaching Cas– insisting he was the better fighter anyway– the hunter went on to tell them what he’d found at the house. 

Sam caught the coin in his hand as it was thrown at him. He frowned as he looked at it intently, seeing the old markings on it. “I’ll be damned. Looks like you make a pretty good hunter after all, Cas,” he said as he passed the man the coin. 

It was Castiel’s turn to look it over. “Hm… I don’t know whether to take pride or take caution,” he muttered as he inspected it. “And you said that this is the third death and the only person who had a problem with the deceased is also dead?” he inquired to Dean. 

Dean nodded. “But here’s the kicker,” he began. “The only person what would have had trouble with the last guy? His ex-wife. Granted, his  _ dead _ ex-wife. Something to do with a long standing debt and a lot of love lost between the two. I was talking to the sheriff and he said that when he looked into her death, this guy was the first person they looked at because they screamed at each other across the courtroom so loud and violently that the judge questioned why they’d ever even been married to begin with.”

“Huh,” Sam huffed out. “Relationships,” he muttered. 

“Yeah, man, I don’t get ‘em,” he said before it dawned on him what he was saying and he looked over at Cas who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “But of course I didn’t mean with you, angel. Totally different with you,” he tried to rectify.

“Mm, I’m sure,” he said skeptically, smirking to himself as he gestured for the other to continue if he had more. 

Dean cleared his throat. “Anyway… the other two were women and, get this, both having an affair with our latest doornail. He was a suspect in their investigations too until he wound up dead. I was able to pull his file file,” he said as he handed it over to Sam. 

Sam looked at it for only a moment before a picture caught his eye and he went white, looking up from the file. “Dean,” he said. “She was at the crime scene.” He turned the file around to show Dean the picture of the man and his wife– ex-wife– the picture he’d already seen.

“What?” he frowned. “Well that’s the dead ex-wife.”

“Yeah, I saw her standing there. She’s a blonde now but I’m sure it was her,” he said, giving a forced chuckle. “Pretty good for a dead woman,” he said. 

Dean nodded, taking the file from him.. 

“Well how do we find her? Couldn’t she have been anywhere by now?” Castiel asked.

“Not anywhere. If it was truly about getting away from him, she would have just left town. She faked her own death and then killed him  _ and _ all his mistresses. She wanted to get even. It almost looks like she wanted to make him go down. Pin them all on him… but she got greedy and angry. And if she was always a witch, why didn’t she do this years ago? Sounds to me like witchcraft is a new thing for her and if she’s using old witchcraft–”

“She’s not the only game in town,” Sam finished. 

“Bingo. She’s got a mentor.”

“We find the mentor then we might just find this woman,” Sam verified. “But how are we going to find a centuries old witch and her student in a whole town? Cas is right… they could be anywhere by now.”

“Not anywhere,” Castiel said, repeating what Dean had said and getting their attention as he thought out loud. “About a week or so back when you were both teaching me and we landed on witches, you said ‘I hate witches with the spewing of bodily fluids and the animal bones and the  _ victory gardens _ ’. And of course I had no idea what you meant so I asked and you told me that witches tended to grow very out of the usual plants for their supplies and to cast spells with.”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, that’s great, Cas. It’s good thinking. But that still leaves a whole town to search for one garden. They could kill half a dozen by then. Even leave town.”

Castiel grinned as he shook his head. “No. Not the whole town. I went looking for some of those plants, started studying them,” he muttered as he got up and reached for the town map they’d gotten from the front desk when they bought the room. He found the street where the two had gone to look at the house after hours. “Alright, here is where the house is,” he said as he marked a dot. “You said there was still so much yellow tape and there were nosy neighbors that had been out during the day so you parked all the way down the street here. You told me to wait in the car; I did. But I got bored at one point and I went looking for some light,” he uttered as Sam and Dean drew closer to see what he was doing. “I wanted to read my book and my phone was dying, wouldn’t let me turn on the flashlight.”

“Yeah, I wanted to kill you because I find you sitting under a friggin’ spotlight reading a book when we didn’t know what was on the loose,” he recounted. “You gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “But that’s beside the point. When I sat down on the bench, I walked from here, all the way down the street here.”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be getting–”

“Sam,” he said, cutting him off. “I was sat there for over an hour waiting for you guys. I took in my surroundings. I noticed that the big, old, house on the corner… had a very nice garden. Growing belladonna, wolfsbane, mandrake–”

“The house had a full on witch garden,” Dean beamed before he grabbed the man and kissed him. “Ha-ha! My baby is a genius. Come on. We gotta go before someone else gets hurt. Maybe this guy has another mistress or a love child we don’t know about,” he noted as he reached for his jacket. 

Castiel sat there and watched as Dean and Sam rounded up their things and headed for the door. They were almost out when Dean turned and looked at him and he smiled, thinking the other was going to ask for a kiss for good luck or to tell him goodbye but he simply gave him a quizzical glance. 

“You gettin’ your jacket on or what, angel? We gotta go,” he ordered. 

Castiel’s eyes widened. “Y-you want me to come with you?” he sputtered. “I’ve literally had one training session. I still don’t even know how to use a gun.”

Dean shrugged, remembering Sam’s words from when Cas had taken a trip to the bathroom. He’d told Dean about how Castiel had learned to block and punch in under an hour and how he seemed to be able to not only take a hit but get right back up and learn from his mistakes, do it better the next time. Part of him wanted to lock his boyfriend in a motel room forever. He wanted to lock him in and never let him go because it meant danger. It would be safer that way. But who was to say that it wouldn’t be any more dangerous if trouble came knocking and Cas didn’t know what he was doing? If he got hurt, they would deal with it. But it was stuff the man needed to know. He was a hunter now. 

“So then we’ll give you a blade,” he said carefully before he smiled. “Come on, angel. You can do it, I know you can,” he nodded as he held his hand out. 

Castiel looked at Sam and then back at Dean as he debated. He still felt scared. In fact, he still felt terrified that he was going to go with them and mess it up. He was going to do something that would get one of them hurt because he either didn’t do what he was supposed to or they would be too worried about saving him that they got hurt. He wouldn’t be able to live with that. But he thought briefly on what Sam had said to him at one point earlier: that he would have to try at some point. 

He nodded, grabbing his jacket and taking Dean’s hand as they went out the door. “Does this mean I get to ride shotgun?”

“No,” the brothers said together. 

Castiel scoffed. “See if you get laid any time soon,” he shot back as he got in the back of the car. 

Sam smirked as Dean seemed to give a face that said what Cas was doing was an injustice. “Castiel giveth and he taketh away,” he snickered. “Let’s go, Dean. Witches. Worry about your lack of a sex life later.”

Dean glanced up at the sky, letting out a ‘so done’ kind of sigh before he got in the car and headed started the car. 

 

They pulled up a little ways away from the house. It could be seen from around the corner as they got out, most of the street dark except the bench Castiel had been talking about. 

Dean led the way as they walked around to the trunk of the impala and Dean opened it, propping the false trunk open with a shotgun as he inspected what they had. 

“Anything special kill a witch?” he asked. 

“Well there was actually… something to burning a witch at the stake during the witch trials,” Sam said. “Witches that are centuries old can survive a neck snapping or a shot to the heart if they’re surrounded by enough magic. But burn the body and they got nothin’ to come back to,” he explained.

“Alright. Fire. Effective,” he said as he picked up a machete that he seemed somewhat drawn to. It was a beautiful blade; black and sleek, much slimmer than a usual machete. It looked more like the smaller version of a pirates blade with its length, though it was still a machete. The blade itself was long, maybe sixteen inches. The weight felt good in his hand even though he’d never held one before. “What about if I was to… I don’t know, get the drop on it and cut it’s head off?” he asked absentmindedly as he twirled it over his hand, testing the weight of it. 

Sam watched him with raised eyebrows. “Yeah… I mean it should work,” he said, sharing a look with Dean. “You know something about blades, Cas?” 

Castiel shook his head. “Nope. Not a thing,” he said though he swiped it in the air as if he did. “Just sort of feels natural, like an extension.”

“Okay, young Skywalker. Just calm down with the blade, yeah? Don’t hurt yourself,” he said as he guided his wrist down to his side. 

“I may be untrained but I’d like to think I’m smart enough to know that I should point the ouchy end at the bad guys, Dean,” he deadpanned. He didn’t mean to be rude but it had been Dean’s idea to take him along. He couldn’t give him this responsibility one second and then treat him like a child the next. He would have to come to terms. 

Sam almost choked on his own spit as he laughed. He shut up when Dean gave him a look but that so didn’t stop him from laughing on the inside. 

Castiel looked at Dean as if asking what he had to say. “Are we going to play couples counseling or can we do that later?” he asked. 

Dean huffed at Castiel’s attitude but damn if it wasn’t one of the reasons he fell for Cas in the first place. He grabbed him a bit rough, pulling him in and kissing him softly. “Be careful,” he whispered. 

“You too, baby,” he whispered back, pecking his lips once more. 

Castiel stayed behind Dean as they went up to the house, trying to stay as quiet as possible. He watched the other two, mostly. He thought maybe he could learn by seeing. He knew that usually this was the part, so the two had told him, where they would go in. They would pick a lock and investigate the house. But they didn’t have the time for that. Especially not when the witches were home.

“So what do we do now?” he hissed at the pair. “They’re home. We don’t just go in, do we?” he queried.

“I think we’re going to have to,” Sam said. “We don’t know if they’re in there casting as we speak and we don’t know if they’re trying to kill someone else that is innocent.”

Dean nodded. “You’re right,” he noted, a plan tracking its way through his head. “Alright. Sammy, take Cas and go around back. I’m gonna give ‘em a shock and burst through the front door.”

“Dean, that’s crazy,” he said. “You don’t know what they’re in there doing. What if they hurt you?”

“Then you and Cas don’t be slow on the rescue, yeah?” he asked as he gestured for them to go around back, assuring Cas that he would be alright. And of course he would. This was his job. 

Castiel’s heart was racing a mile a minute. He’d never been in a situation like this before and he was having a hard time calming his beating heart. And then there was something that he hadn’t given an ounce of thought until this moment: how was he going to kill something? Whether they were evil or not, they still had the faces of women, of people. Would he be able to kill them even though they had killed someone else?  

It didn’t help that Dean was just volunteering to go up to a house with two, possibly more, witches inside and waltz through the front door. He knew that Dean was the specialist, so to speak. He knew what he was doing. But that didn’t stop him from being scared. Dean was the reason he was here. He couldn’t lose him now. 

Dean, on the other hand, was as calm as he always was on a hunt. Sure there was the normal adrenaline that came from hunting but he was a cucumber nonetheless. He put his gun in the waistband of his jeans and made sure his jacket covered it. He stood in front of the door, letting out a breath before he brought his leg up, putting all his weight and energy behind the grand kick he gave, the wood splintering away from the threshold and the door banging open. 

“That’s our cue,” Sam whispered to Cas as he carefully opened the door to the back, making sure they made little to no noise. 

“Honey! I’m home!” Dean called playfully, a smirk on his face as he sauntered in, seeing two women sitting there. “Ah good, you’re here. I was thinking that maybe we wouldn’t get the chance to talk,” he said, though before he could say much more, he was being thrown against the wall. He grunted. Man was he getting tired of shit like that. 

He blinked the slight daze out of his eyes as they focused and he looked at the women. One of them he recognized as the brunette turned blonde that they were sure had murdered her husband in effort of retribution. The other, clearly the elder. 

“Come on, ladies, we can talk this out,” he said to them, but immediately as he spoke, he doubled over in pain, groaning at the feeling. 

The sound brought unease to Castiel and he winced, Sam giving him a look that said he knew how he felt but that they couldn’t go bursting in like Dean had. They had to stay quiet for just a moment longer. 

Sam made a gesture, pointing to the couch and then pointing to the ground, telling Castiel to stay behind it. They’d brought Cas here, yes. But Sam was sure that he and Dean were just as hopeful that Cas wouldn’t see any action. 

Castiel nodded, telling him he understood.

“Hunter,” the first woman– the blonde– hissed, clenching her fist as if to use her magic to cause Dean more pain. 

“Let my brother go,” Sam ordered as he came in, aiming his gun in their general direction. He would have liked to say things like he didn’t want to hurt them but that wasn’t true after what they’d done to so many people. 

The distraction gave Dean a break, panting just a little as the witch closest to him busied herself with watching Sam. What he wouldn’t have given to simply spring from the wall and pummel the bitch no matter if she was a woman or not. She was a monster. It was fair game.  

For a moment he wondered where Cas was, what Sam had done with him. But he remained calm. He trusted them both even if Cas was a little green in this area.

The way the sitting room was set up, Sam had to move around the couch so that he could face the women, giving no indication as Castiel slunk low to the ground behind the furniture, being the backup he wasn’t sure if they would need or not.

He walked closer, circling them a little with a fierce look on his face. “I said… let my brother go,” he ordered once more, this time with more conviction, his jaw only clenching when the witches seemed to laugh. 

“You’re not going to shoot us,” the elder foretold. 

“Wanna bet?” Sam growled, his hand tightening on the gun. 

“I’d be willing to. You may have the balls to pull the trigger but who says it will even do damage? You don’t know if I’ve thought to put any sort of protection on myself. Not to mention you think you can really shoot us both fast enough there, tough guy? Who’s to say one of us won’t break your neck as soon as the shot fires?” she questioned, her words like a snake to him with the way she talked. “Who’s to say we won’t take your brother down with us?”

Sam’s jaw clenched again but this time it was out of anger because he knew she was right. He couldn’t make a move. He couldn’t risk what they would do to Dean. He debated on what to do, where to go from here but he knew there was only one way; he had to take a chance. 

He held the gun up, aiming to shoot at one of them, at least but the redhead rounded on him. The woman that was clearly the elder, the stronger of the two, flicked her wrist. Sam’s gun flew from his hand and clattered to the ground before Sam followed in the other direction, hitting hard against the wall.

The witches seemed to smirk in victory, one of them holding her hand up as if to deliver the final blow when suddenly the hair of the blonde woman was yanked back to expose her neck and Castiel pressed his blade to the skin. “Let my boyfriend go,” he growled deeply into her ear. “Or you become a bloodstain on the carpet.”

Dean’s body was released from the wall, the witches seeming to pause at the third hunter, not having accounted for that. He panted a little, watching his boyfriend; not knowing whether to be scared or turned on. He knew that Castiel didn’t know much of what he was doing but he was doing well so far. Maybe this stuff could be taught.

Castiel might have been scared before but his friends– his  _ family _ needed him to sack up. His hand was steady as it held the blade to her throat, not shaking like it had been before. He'd thought himself incompetent before… but not when Sam and Dean were on the line. He couldn't afford to be so he simply wasn't.

“I let your precious boyfriend go,” she growled, probably angry at being bested. “Now let me go.”

“That’s not how it works, sweetheart,” Dean said as he got his legs about him, reaching into the waistband of his pants to retrieve his gun, checking the magazine before cocking the gun. 

The redhead watched the three as if making a choice before magic came out of her like a punch, throwing Sam and Dean against the walls once more as well as Cas.

When he hit the wall, he groaned in pain, it shocking through his entire body. He’d never had a very low threshold for pain but with the way he’d landed, he couldn’t help but feel it in every nerve ending. He opened his eyes– tried to, anyway– but it was slightly blurry and he writhed as he tried to adjust, tried to get up.  

“ _ You’ll feel a lot of pain in this job _ ,” Sam and Dean had told him in the car once. “ _ But you get so used to it that you pick up and move on because if you move too slow; you’re dead. _ ” He remembered Dean whacking Sam for that comment.

Dean and Sam recovered first, this being something they were used to. They were used to fighting through the pain so much that they didn’t much feel it until after the adrenaline had left their body and they were left with raw feeling that came with. But in a moment, Sam was dodging her touches and trying to grab her without letting her cast but it didn’t seem to be doing much good. 

Dean made a noise as he went after the other witch, bringing his fist up to give her a good punch in hopes of knocking her out and dealing with one at a time but he froze in his tracks as she muttered Latin. Suddenly, like before, he doubled over in pain. But this time was much different as he began to cough up blood.

The hunter could feel the magic churning his organs. Everything felt wrong. She was actually killing him. His eyes flickered to Sam where his brother was getting the same treatment before he looked to Cas but in his pained state he didn’t get much of a chance. He cried out in pain once more, blood spilling on the floor. 

Castiel’s eyes finally focused on Dean, the pained noises coming from both members of his new family carrying him through the pain and fighting it off. Whatever he was feeling pushed to the back of his mind as he forced himself up even if the pain was still there. No. He wouldn’t let Dean die. Nor Sam. 

“No…” he muttered as he found a new surge of energy as he saw red, the need to protect the two running through his veins. He let his instincts take over, instincts he didn’t even know he had. “No!” he shouted before he threw the machete with all his might, without thinking much of it. 

The witch had been turning, probably to kill him as well. When she did, the blade hit it’s mark; burying itself deep in her chest. She let out a gasp. Whether it was in shock or pain, Castiel didn’t really know but he didn’t much care. He watched as the blood immediately began to seep from the wound and to her shirt before she dropped. He stared at her for a long moment. He gazed upon the way her eyes glazed over and for a moment he felt guilt. 

He eyed the other witch whose attention he seemed to have now as she figured out that her friend was dead. He watched briefly as she seemed to debate avenging her friend and mentor or fleeing but as she stalked toward him, Latin on her tongue, the choice was clear. 

Castiel acted fast, letting his body take over and when her arm came around to throw whatever sort of magic at him, he slid on his knees under her arm toward the other witch. He grabbed the blade tight and pulled it out of the blonde woman with ease before he turned, standing to meet her again. 

The brothers that were still on the floor, too dazed to stand from what they were seeing. How had Cas learned to throw a blade like that? It wasn’t something you just did. Sure there were lucky breaks and then there was just down right  _ skill _ . The blade was thrown with a precision that Dean didn’t think he’d be able to teach Castiel for years. 

Then there was the fact that Castiel moved like a trained professional; the way he threw the blade, the way he was able to dodge the witch’s attacks, someone that had probably been fending off hunters longer than Castiel had even been alive. So how did he get the drop on her?

Sam and Dean seemed to call out in pain once more, the witch having overtaken the spell of the former. With her age and her practice, it was no doubt that she was stronger and she was only proving it.

“You can’t kill me,” she bargained as Castiel approached. “Who’s to say the spell will stop–”

She was cut off as Castiel grabbed her by the shoulder and drove the blade through her sternum, shocking just about everyone in the room.  

“I’ll take my chances,” he whispered before he twisted the blade, making sure it was a wound from which she wouldn’t recover; then let her fall. 

Castiel stood there, panting with the blade still in his hand. He looked down, seeing the blood before he let that clang to the floor as well. He’d just killed someone. Not one someone, no, but two. Two people. Sure, they’d done bad things to mostly innocent people… but he’d still taken two lives that day. 

Castiel was left wondering where that had all come from? How had he known to do that? Sure, he’d seen plenty of action movies and TV shows with stunts better than that… but this was real life. It wasn’t possible to just see something and emulate it… so how had he done that when moments ago he was wondering if he could even take a life and now he was left in the wake of it all to realize he’d taken two. 

He wondered fleetingly if it was because Sam and Dean were in danger. He’d let a monster out of him simply because the boys he was growing to love… were in danger and he’d given up one family to be with them. He couldn’t lose them. He couldn’t.

He heard a noise behind him and he was shaken from his reverie as he stumbled to Dean, kneeling down to him. “Baby… baby, tell me you’re okay,” he said softly as he hauled the other up just a little so they were eye to eye, Cas thumbing away blood from his lips. 

Dean shook his head, still panting a little. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” he said as he eyed Castiel. Where had the other learned to do all that when just an hour ago he was saying that he’d never thrown a proper punch? He knew it was something Sam couldn’t have taught. Not in an hour of training. No one was that good. Not even Sam. 

Sam. 

Dean looked over to his brother, seeing him still hunched over and on all fours. “Sammy, you okay?” he queried, his voice much more gruff than usual from coughing. 

Sam nodded, picking his head up and wiping the blood. “I’m good,” he grunted out.

“Can you stand?” Castiel asked Dean, slowly trying to pull the other up when he nodded. 

He got Dean to his feet, giving him the chance to get steady. As soon as he was sure his boyfriend was steady, he moved to do the same with Sam, helping him up off the ground. 

“Thanks, Cas,” he muttered, looking down at his friend. Perhaps Castiel… hadn’t been completely honest with them about who he was…

  
  


Later, as they loaded the last of anything Dean and Sam deemed as ‘witchy’ into the fire they’d built out back out of their corpses, Castiel looked down into the grave they’d dug. It had been difficult and Sam and Dean had made him do a lot of the work claiming that he needed to learn how to do it properly if for, whatever reason, he needed to do it by himself one day. Castiel was sure that they just didn’t want to. 

But it had given him a lot of time to think. It was night time now, but before he’d lost the light of the sun in the sky, he’d thought a lot of things through. He’d thought about what he’d turned into when he knew that the people he cared about were in danger. He thought about how he was able to do all of that and barely break a sweat. He wondered if there was something he didn’t know like a hidden memory where he’d taken karate or something. 

He thought about the time before his family… the time where he and his siblings were wandering the road. He wondered if he’d somehow learned what he did when all that had happened but it was impossible. He’d only been a baby who barely knew how to walk. He wouldn’t have been able to learn such things at that time. 

The more he thought about it, the less he seemed to care where and how he’d learned it and the more he cared about it happening again. He hadn’t deemed it good or bad but it was  _ useful _ . Or it had been in the moment. What if he couldn’t do it again? What if it was a freak adrenaline thing and it could never be replicated? Would he be able to save Sam and Dean if something like this happened again?

All those thoughts were running through his head when the brothers in question came up behind him. 

The hunters, while going back into the house to make sure they’d gotten everything, spoke briefly to each other about what Cas had done but then Castiel had come back and they’d clammed up. Now… they’d both decided they needed to talk to the third man. 

“Cas,” Dean said softly. 

Castiel turned, looking at the brothers. He was about to ask them what was wrong, ask them if there was something else they hadn’t done but at the looks on their faces… he knew this was about him. “Yeah?” he played dumb for a moment. 

Sam sucked in a breath. “Cas… we just wanna make sure you’ve been… completely honest with exactly who and… uh…  _ what _ you say you are–”

Dean cut him off with a hard whack. “Cas is not a monster,” he instructed with a deep voice as if wondering how Sam could even ask him that question. 

“Then what, Dean? Am I just supposed to pretend like most people can throw blades like that– move like that?”

Castiel sucked in a breath. “Guys–”

“You don’t friggin’ ask my boyfriend if he’s a monster.”

“Well it’s not like you would have. Besides, I care about Cas. He’s not a monster.”

“Then what exactly is your line of questioning supposed to come to?”

“Guys, enough,” Castiel said softly, getting between the two just a bit. “This is something stupid to argue about. Seriously,” he said as he pulled back. “The truth is… I don’t know if I am something–”

“Cas you’re human. Just like me, just like Sam. I know because I tested you,” Dean offered. 

Castiel immediately looked a little betrayed but at the same time, Dean had a right to test him. He recalled when Dean told him that they tested just about everyone they crossed paths with so it was really no surprise. They would have needed to make sure that he was honest with them and truly what he said he was. “You tested me?” he still asked. 

Dean held up his hands, showing the other his rings. “One’s silver, one’s iron. They were all over you the night we met. Then when I was bringing you to meet Sam you said you were thirsty and you needed some water. I didn’t realize you were drinking out of my holy water flask until it was done. Nothing happened any of those times, Cas. Silver, iron, holy water– they would have burned you if you were something more. Anything else that doesn’t react to those needs a steady supply of organs– brains, liver, blood… we would have realized if you were snacking on humans by now, angel.”

Castiel’s shoulders released a tension he didn’t know he’d been holding. So he wasn’t a monster, not like he’d thought earlier while watching the blood from the women seep into the carpet. He was just a killer. But he was a killer of things that killed people. That made up for something. It had to.

“So… how did I do what I did?” he questioned. “I don’t have any experience. I didn’t lie about that. I-I’ve never held a knife before today except to cut food. This was different. I… I’ve never  _ thrown _ a knife before. I just…” he trailed off as he breathed. “I saw that you were both in danger and I thought of what you said, Sam. To be faster than whatever was trying to kill you because to be slower was to be dead. So I moved faster. I just… I let my body take over. I don’t have a clue what happened and I don’t know how to replicate it…”

Dean nodded, watching the other bear his soul. “Okay, okay, angel,” he said softly as he brought Castiel into his arms. “I believe you. We believe you, right, Sam?” Dean inquired, looking over at his brother. 

Of course Dean was curious, he would be foolish not to be. And he was almost always cautious. If he hadn’t tested the other then he might have believed that Cas was lying to him, playing him. But he wasn’t. He had grown to know Cas and he believed his boyfriend. He knew he was telling him the truth.

“Yeah. Yeah, of course, Cas,” he offered with a nod, though he was still skeptical. “Probably just some freak adrenaline thing.” It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Cas or that the man had done anything too amazing. It was minimal compared to what he and Dean could do when pushed. But it was monumental when they other couldn’t throw a proper punch a few hours ago. It left him wondering what Cas could have been hiding or if he was just that good. 

Castiel wrapped around Dean, staying there in his arms. He let the rest of the time pass by in a blur, only standing there when Sam and Dean covered the grave for the witches and then he was back in Dean’s arms as they made their way out to the impala. He was in such a daze that he didn’t even realize when the hunters let him ride shotgun in favor of staying right there under Dean’s arm. 

He knew that there wouldn’t be much time for sleep. They’d taken care of the witch problem and so they would be moving on even after the long night. But he didn’t mind… he was ready to leave this town and the questions it sprouted and the thoughts it awoke. 

Beyond everything, Castiel was glad for the distraction of packing and getting their things together prior to them getting on the road once more. He listened to the brothers talk as he watched the stars out the back window, laying down and curling up and letting the thoughts dwindle down before he was able to chalk it all up to freak adrenaline. 

He was not a monster...

**Author's Note:**

> So tell me what you think! I do apologize if this seems a little everywhere what with the first part being about Dean's misunderstanding that was just a little fun on my part but the fighting tied into Cas' first hunt and his first time being in 'the field'. So it made more sense to me to lump it together rather than split it up! The next one is going to be a bigger piece, trust me. Might even be multi-chaptered!


End file.
